So, I bought a tower rack off eBay. This rack is suppose to fit: 2" or 2.25" or 2.5inch wakeboard towers. I have a Zeroflex Tower on my 2001 X-Star... this is a 2" tower! Basically how it works is that they send you a couple different sized rubber inserts that will allow it to fit different sized racks. So with mine, I had to use the thickest rubber insert, plus the additional thin piece of rubber matting they send with it. I have attached a picture and circled the 2 pieces I had to use.

Basically, the tower holds fine until I hit some waves. The jarring of continuously hitting waves slowly makes the tower turn. I have this thing tightened prettty good but it still turns. Is this due to the fact that there are 2 rubber inserts being used? Anyone else had this problem?

I had the same problem with my aftermarket racks for my 99 star. They're a little different than yours, but have the same inserts. I solved the problem by tightening the bolts with a hex head on a rachet instead of an allen wrench. You can get the bolts much tighter. Also, make sure you tighten the bolts evenly so the clamp tightens against the tower evenly. Good luck!

Maybe put a mark on both pieces of rubber to see exactly where it is moving. You could glue the rubber parts together and use rubber cement to between the tower and rubber and rack and rubber. It is not a very good adhesive but it rubs right off with your finger so may be worth a shot. Otherwise, I think you are on to more permanent, non-reversable fixes.

Rereading my post makes me wonder about the following. What if you taped off and plasticoated (plasti-dip) the tower and rack where they join? If it doesn't work it seems to peal off, so once again, it is completely reversible and worth a shot.

Try some duct tape between the rubbers and the rubber and the tower. You can add extra to make it incramentaly thicker as needed. Just make sure you cover it all up with the clamp so you don't look like a redneck out there.

Good luck with that. i have been battling it for years and have tried everything in the book.
Think or compare to handlebars on a BMX bike. The job is quite the same and how well would rubber inserts work there?

The conclusion I came up with is to buy the correct racks that fit the tube size without rubber spacers.

It's interesting that you wrote that. I just contacted the guy I bought the boat off of and asked him what he used. He told me that he used a rack that was designed for 1 and 7/8 inches with no rubber inserts. The rack he used was just metal to metal contact. He said it worked great!

I had that problem one time when I purchased wrong size clamps. I went to home depot purchased a section of 1" aluminium strip metal. Cut two pieces to fit on the inside of the clamp and formed to match the curve of the tower. You have to make sure both pieces fall short of the overall circle length so the clamp can bolt down all the way. I bolted the clamp on the tower with no rubber inserts. Never once came loose.

I used a small torch and a pin hammer to form the aluminum strip i needed.

This may be the most redneck thing ever but it cost me about $15 for the piece of aluminum and about 1 hour to make them work. I hope i made since.

Xstarrider, I'm not sure what you mean by "your tower is 100%". But anyways, yeah I actually contacted DIY-wake today. Their clamp is a little different than mine. Their clamps use bolts that insert from the inside of the clamp to secure itself to the rack. This is kinda of reverse design to what mine is. I'm trying to get a hold of a company called bullet-lines. They might have a clamp that will work with my rack. Hopefully I know the answer to this by tomorrow.

boardjnky4, not sure what clear plumbing stuff you're talking about. Any more info?

Well... looks like bulletlines.com claims that their tower clamps will work with my rack. I emailed them pictures! So, looks like I should get this by the end of this work, or early next week. I ordered the 1 and 7/8. I hope it works!